Doctor Who - Timelash (Episode 142)
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Movie Reviews of Doctor Who - Timelash (Episode 142)
Movie Review: awsome
Summary: 5 Stars
what can I say, the more Doctor Who that is released the better the world is. long awaited releaseMovie Review: OMG, my eyes!
Summary: 4 Stars
Timelash, the story fans love to hate. The DVD still gets a decent rating because you know its bad like a Plan 9 from Outer Space, but what one is really rating on these releases is the quality of the presentation.
The extras on the disc are thin, but I can see why 2 | Entertain wouldn't want to spend extra cash to do some CGI effects for the story. It would have ruined it!
The main meat of the extras is the documentary "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" about the making and reaction to Timelash. It quite interesting as a bashing of JNT. I like the bit where it was deduced that it had to have been JNT who added the references to the 3rd Doctor because no one else is going to fess up to it.
Movie Review: One of the most disliked stories in Doctor Who history
Summary: 5 Stars
I've never found this one as bad as some have made it out to be. NO, it isn't the best but it isn't the worst either. This is one of those stories that, if you keep a sense of humor, you may actually enjoy it. I've always thought that Colin Baker was a great Doctor but in a time when the production was going downhill. Colin does a very good job and once again makes the story. The scene where he's talking to HG Wells on the TARDIS is fun and it's nice to see all the 3rd Doctor references after having the 2nd Doctor turn up in the last storyDoctor Who - The Two Doctors (Episode 141).Movie Review: The Whole Package is Average
Summary: 3 Stars
Longtime Doctor Who fans rate this story in the bottom ten but I would put it a bit higher than that. The story has some flaws and continuity issues but I always liked the concept. I also thought it was fun to see H.G. Wells travel along with the Doctor for a story. But the overall DVD is just average. The story is average and the extras are average.
There is a documentary about the making of the story featuring interviews with Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Paul Darrow, and Eric Saward. And all four of them share bad memories about working with a bad script...as if we need to be reminded. There are photos from the production but there is nothing else very extraordinary. There are no extended scenes, no deleted scenes, and no CGI options. It is just average overall but fans will want to have it in your collection.
Movie Review: "Turn off when I'm dead, it's boring"
Summary: 3 Stars
"Timelash" has long been maligned as the worst story from one of "Doctor Who"'s weaker seasons. Everyone, it seems, has a different explanation as to why "Timelash" failed: the fault might lie with the guest actors, or with the director, or the writer, the producer, the set designer... Everyone, just this once, is correct.
"Timelash"'s script is a mess, and that's the fatal flaw. There's too much going on and the end result is less than the sum of its parts. There's an interplanetary war, a deformed dictator (part man, part plesiosaur), some no-nonsense rebels (played here by a pretty young woman and a bald fat guy), a bunch of squabbling Senators, a time corridor in space... and a young H.G. Wells. The characters are by and large one-dimensional, and the dialogue is mostly woeful. Nothing that happens on the planet Karfel ever really engages the viewer... except for Paul Darrow.
Best known for his role on "Blake's 7", Darrow came to this story expected to turn in a similar performance. Instead, he wanted to explore fresh waters by playing his character as Richard the Third. He delivers, in the end, a sarcastic, pompous, oily performance that would have worked really well... had any of the other guest actors been up to the challenge. Instead, he sticks out like a sore thumb. As Darrow says in the DVD's making-of featurette, the story really does get boring once his character exits, midway through the final episode.
The making-of documentary, by the way, is one of the DVD production team's liveliest efforts thus far. Several members of the production (cast and crew) spread the blame around. Script editor Eric Saward, as he always does, blames the producer, a man who's been dead for years. He does point some of the blame at the episode director, but then blames the producer for hiring said director in the first place. As a result, these 20 minutes are far livelier than anything that happens during "Timelash" proper.
"Timelash"'s strength is in the voice acting. Three men alone were up to the task of adding gravitas to their lines: Colin Baker (the Doctor), Darrow, and Robert Ashby (the plesiosaur), who reportedly wrote his own ripostes when the script failed him: "Another expedition into the realms of duplicity". Separated from its drab sets and heard only as an audio play, "Timelash" might offer some moments of true menace.
Unfortunately, apart from those three performances, the rest of the guest cast are just going through the motions, likely as confused by the story as were the script editor and director. "Timelash" winds up a dull misfire, not as bad its legend has grown, but certainly not worth the DVD cover price unless you're a completist.